Boing Boing Comment on Violet Blue Debacle July 2, 2008
Posted by Jason Ellis in News, Personal, Science Fiction.Tags: boingboing, comments, fiasco, ideology, violetblue
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Okay, I couldn’t resist adding my two cents to the Boing Boing - Violet Blue shindig, so I posted a comment. I think I’m #730. I’ve pasted my comment here for your reading edification, or you can click here to read it along with the many hundreds of other comments.
I’m amazed at how this one post and what preceded it has generated such vicious and impassioned discussion (or arguing past one another, depending on one’s perspective). As the smoke begins to clear this evening, it seems like there was a shattering of some kind of BoingBoing ideology for some folks. That ideology is somewhat amorphous and slippery, but the gist is that there existed an unacknowledged contract of archival integrity between BoingBoing and its readers. For those readers most hurt by the removal of posts related to Violet Blue, as well as the handling of that removal, their BoingBoing ideology of open source transparency, which was never officially acknowledged–yes, I think official is the right word when you’re talking about online businesses, even of Directories of Wonderful Things, was broken by the revelation that BoingBoing isn’t necessarily a blog of, for, and by the people (read: netizens with an emotional stake in the blog that embodies their ideology). BoingBoing is part of a business model that encompasses an editorial board embodied in Mark, Jeni, Cory, David, John, and Joel. That board makes decisions about the way BoingBoing is run, and there’s no reason personal views, feelings, and emotions can’t figure into their decisions (if they did at all in what’s become a fiasco in as far as it’s exploded into one in the comments and within the blogosphere–perhaps the explosion is contained). Anyways, it’s time for BoingBoing readers to reflect on any kind of ideological investment that they have in this site or others. This is not to say that BoingBoing doesn’t reflect or represent a certain “good” or “bad” ideology, but we all should, as reflective and critical thinkers, examine our investment in the work of others ad infinitum or we run the risk of complacency and childlike horror when reality doesn’t measure up to our expectations.
-Dynamicsubspace
Boing Boing Kisses and Makes Up July 19, 2008
Posted by Jason Ellis in News, Personal.Tags: afterschoolspecial, boingboing, comments, happymutants, warrenellis, xenijardin
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Xeni Jardin wrote a post today on Boing Boing titled, “ Lessons Learned.” I’ve commented on the Boing Boing explosion from a couple of weeks ago here, here, and here. It’s part apology, and part “here’s what we learned today.” As far as the Boing Boing community goes, I think it’s good that Xeni posted this. Also, it’s interesting how positive the majority of comments are to this post than to the original post that served as lightning rod to this mess. I wonder if folks had time to cool off, or if those anti-happy mutants jetisoned their escape pod to points of interest in the Internet Cloud that they found more amenable to their sensibilities. Anyways, I think Warren Ellis’ post, The Patchwork Years, is a good read and perspective antidote to comment wars and the general philocentric ennui on the net.